Another Record Year for Lobbying

industries and interests spent $17 million for every day Congress was in session. The drug industry spent the most of all, paying lobbyists 25 percent more last year.

WASHINGTON–Corporations, industries, labor unions, governments and other interests spent a record $2.79 billion in 2007 to lobby for favorable policies in Washington, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has calculated. This represents an increase of 7.7 percent, or $200 million, over spending in 2006. And for every day Congress was in session, industries and interests spent an average of $17 million to lobby lawmakers and the federal government at large.

“At a time when our economy is contracting, Washington’s lobbying industry has been expanding,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the 25-year-old watchdog group. “Lobbying seems to be a recession-proof industry. In some respects, interests seek even more from our government when the economy slows.”

CRP, which tracks lobbying spending on its award-winning Web site, OpenSecrets.org, found that, for the second straight year, health interests spent more on federal lobbying than any other economic sector—$444.7 million. The finance, insurance and real estate sector was second, spending about $418.7 million.

Looking more specifically within the larger sectors the Center tracks, the pharmaceuticals/health products industry outspent all industries by shelling out $227 million for lobbying services, or an average of $1.4 million for the 164 days that the 110th Congress met in 2007. The drug industry has spent $1.3 billion on federal lobbying over the last 10 years, more than any other industry. Its reported lobbying increased 25 percent in 2007.

The second-biggest spender among industries in 2007 was insurance, which spent $138 million on lobbying, followed by electric utilities, which spent $112.7 million, the computers/Internet industry, which spent $110.6 million, and hospitals and nursing homes, which paid lobbyists at least $90.5 million. The securities and investment industry, which ranked sixth, spent $87.3 million, increasing its lobbying 40 percent over 2006.

Drilling even further to look at particular corporations, trade associations, unions and other organizations, the biggest spender in 2007 was again the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Although the business booster’s reported lobbying decreased about 27 percent last year, following a record year in 2006, the Chamber and its affiliates still managed to spend nearly $52.8 million on in-house lobbyists and with K Street firms.

General Electric was the number-two spender ($23.6 million), followed by three interests in the health sector: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America ($22.7 million), American Medical Association ($22.1 million) and the American Hospital Association ($19.7 million). Other big spenders on the Top 20 list included AARP, Exxon Mobil, AT&T, General Motors, the National Association of Realtors, Verizon Communications and several defense contractors, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The amount of money spent on federal lobbying has increased about 8 percent annually since the late 1990s, making last year’s growth typical. But some interests vastly increased their lobbying in 2007. Blackstone Group, the private equity firm lobbying to prevent higher taxes on its profits, ramped up 477 percent to spend $5.4 million. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, spent $9.2 million last year—up 464 percent—and presumably focused its lobbying on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind act.

Among Washington’s lobbying firms, Patton Boggs reported the highest revenue from registered lobbying for the fifth year in a row, $41.9 million, an increase over 2006 of more than 20 percent. The firm’s most lucrative clients included the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, the candy and pet food company Mars Inc., telecom giant Verizon, the pharmaceutical manufacturers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche, and the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America).

The Center for Responsive Politics calculated spending on lobbying as narrowly defined under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, because that is what is disclosed to the Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR) and House Legislative Resource Center. Spending by corporations, industry groups, unions and other interests that is not strictly for lobbying of covered government officials, but is still meant to influence public policy, is not reported—and may exceed what was spent on direct lobbying. Such activities include public relations, advertising and grassroots lobbying.

Spending on lobbying was reported twice a year to Congress in 2007. The year-end reports were due Feb. 14 to SOPR, which was the data source for the Center’s analysis. The Center’s Lobbying Database on OpenSecrets.org now includes approximately 42,000 reports from 2007 that were available electronically from SOPR on April 7, in addition to data back to 1998. Despite SOPR’s new electronic filing system, it still took about eight weeks for complete year-end lobbying data to become electronically available to the public.

Beginning this year, lobbying reports will now be filed quarterly. April 21 is the deadline for reports covering lobbying in January through March of this year.

Celebrating its 25th year in 2008, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. The nonpartisan, nonprofit Center aims to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more responsive government. CRP’s award-winning Web site, OpenSecrets.org, is the most comprehensive resource for campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere. For other organizations and news media, CRP’s exclusive data powers their online features tracking money in politics. CRP relies on support from a combination of foundation grants and individual contributions. The Center accepts no contributions from businesses, labor unions or trade associations.

Media Contact

Viveca Novak
(202) 354-0111
press@crp.org

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